Andy Werner is VP of Partnerships and Strategy at Transak, one of the world's leading fiat-to-crypto on-ramp providers. Werner shares his journey through fintech — from big banks to startups — and explains how Transak is building the compliance and payments infrastructure that quietly powers hundreds of crypto platforms globally. While the company operates in what he jokingly calls the "boring" side of crypto, Werner argues that boring is exactly what payments infrastructure should be: seamless, reliable, and invisible to the end user.

The conversation dives deep into the evolving role of stablecoins, which Werner frames not as ideological crypto instruments but as practical tools for builders. For developers and businesses, stablecoins function like programmable payment rails — enabling instant settlement, global reach, and lower costs through a single integration. He points to the past 18–24 months as a turning point, driven by clearer regulation in the U.S. and frameworks like MiCA in Europe. This regulatory momentum, combined with improving UX abstraction around wallets and compliance, is accelerating enterprise adoption and opening new product categories.

Werner also reflects on stablecoin usage through the lens of his Argentine roots, where inflation and currency instability make the value proposition immediately obvious. In markets across Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia, dollar-backed stablecoins act as a digital escape hatch — giving consumers access to dollar savings, payments, and yield via nothing more than a smartphone. From remittances to trade finance and cross-border payroll, these real-world use cases are driving rapid growth. Transak is already seeing 30–40% of its volume in stablecoins, a figure Werner expects to exceed 50% — possibly 75% — within a year as adoption shifts from speculative crypto assets to everyday financial flows.

The discussion closes on regulation and the future of financial services. Werner is strongly in favor of pending U.S. stablecoin legislation, particularly provisions that would allow issuers to pass yield to users — arguing competition with banks ultimately benefits consumers. Looking ahead, his conviction is clear: all financial services will migrate on-chain. His hot takes? He's 90% Bitcoin maximalist, believes everything will eventually run on blockchain rails, and expects AI — still under-adopted today — to unleash massive productivity gains. His sci-fi pick to wrap it all up: Foundation by Isaac Asimov — a fitting nod to long-range technological inevitability.

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Andy sits down with SB, CEO and co-founder of Veera, to unpack a bold attempt at one of crypto's oldest and most stubborn problems: making it usable for normal people. From launching BlackBerrys and building early mobile ad tech, to challenging Netflix with an Asian streaming platform and exiting a travel startup, SB's winding entrepreneurial path now lands squarely in on-chain finance. The conversation traces how Veera is positioning itself as a true crypto neobank — not just a wallet with a card — and why user experience, not yield or hype, will decide whether crypto ever really breaks into the mainstream.

SB starts by framing Veera as a product-led response to crypto's stalled adoption curve. Despite hundreds of millions of internet users globally, crypto still lives in the "tens of millions" club, largely because it's too complex for everyday users. Veera's core idea is simple but ambitious: your mother should be able to swap tokens, stake assets, or move funds without knowing what a bridge, seed phrase, or protocol is. That philosophy has driven Veera's focus on passkeys instead of seed phrases, simplified onboarding, and heavy use of abstraction to hide blockchain complexity behind familiar, intuitive design. SB positions himself as a "fresh eyes" builder in Web3 — someone who didn't grow up native to crypto and therefore isn't blind to how broken the experience still is.

Geographically, Veera is betting on the same adoption arc the internet followed: emerging markets first, then deeper penetration in developed economies. SB points to Latin America, parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East as the next major growth zones, where access to global financial products is still limited. From there, he lays out Veera's four-pillar model: Invest, Earn, Spend, and Borrow. That includes tokenized gold, upcoming tokenized equities for users who've never had realistic access to global stocks, multi-chain yield in a single interface, a crypto prepaid card with tens of thousands already waitlisted, and a longer-term push into on-chain lending using financial identity and credit scoring. The pitch is clear: a full-stack, crypto-native bank rather than a TradFi app with a blockchain sticker slapped on top.

The conversation closes on the bigger picture — institutional capital, regulation, and what actually moves the needle for mass adoption. SB sees the market maturing, citing massive liquidation events that no longer crash the system as a sign of growing resilience and institutional presence. But for consumers, he's blunt: UX is still the real bottleneck. Yields exist, volatility is slowly compressing, but the experience remains "so, so broken." In the rapid-fire hot take round, he plants his flag as a multi-chain opportunist, calls Ethereum his firmest conviction, and predicts stablecoins will become the basic financial rails of the next decade. It's a forward-looking, product-first take on a future where on-chain finance doesn't feel like crypto anymore — it just feels like money.

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John Hargrave, CEO of Media Shower and author of The Intelligent Crypto Investor, joins the show to unpack a radically calm, Buffett-inspired approach to crypto investing. From wiring money to Belarus to buy Bitcoin in 2013 to nearly losing his business in the 2018 crypto winter, John shares how hard-earned wisdom led him to a disciplined, diversified strategy that blends traditional assets with a carefully sized slice of high-quality crypto — and why this model has quietly outperformed traditional portfolios over the past several years.

John traces his origin story from early Bitcoin believer to battle-tested investor, recounting the moment he and his wife went "all in" on crypto during the 2017 bull run — and the brutal reality check that followed when the market collapsed. That near-death experience for his marketing business reshaped his philosophy around risk, leading him to embrace diversification over maximalism. The result: a framework that treats crypto not as a lottery ticket or ideological crusade, but as a serious asset class that earns its place alongside stocks and bonds.
At the core of John's book is a simple but contrarian portfolio model: a traditional 60/30-style mix of stocks and bonds, plus up to 10% allocated to high-quality crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. He argues this small slice has historically captured outsized upside while strictly limiting downside risk — even in worst-case scenarios. John also takes aim at financial advisors for being "a decade behind," suggesting everyday investors can now build and manage this strategy themselves with the right tools and long-term mindset.
Beyond numbers, John brings storytelling and big ideas into the mix, drawing inspiration from legendary investors like Warren Buffett, Ben Graham, and Bill Miller to apply value-investing principles to blockchain projects. He shares his bold conviction that crypto and AI represent unevenly distributed futures — and that a global digital currency is not a question of "if," but "when." The conversation closes on sci-fi, Asimov, and the long arc of technological change, framing crypto not just as an investment, but as a bet on the architecture of tomorrow's financial system.

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